Northern white crust

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 1 records
February: 7 records
March: 11 records
April: 14 records
May: 16 records
June: 19 records
July: 52 records
August: 73 records
September: 428 records
October: 50 records
November: 8 records
December: 4 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 20–107 m · Deepest record: 861 m

0–10 m: 27 records
10–20 m: 36 records
20–30 m: 65 records
30–40 m: 94 records
40–50 m: 55 records
50–60 m: 48 records
60–70 m: 61 records
70–80 m: 72 records
80–90 m: 15 records
90–100 m: 34 records
100–110 m: 39 records
110+ m: 50 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of -1–17 °C

-2–0 °C: 15 records
0–2 °C: 9 records
2–4 °C: 17 records
4–6 °C: 21 records
6–8 °C: 10 records
8–10 °C: 582 records
10–12 °C: 21 records
12–14 °C: 4 records
14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 2 records

Photos

(c) Ian Manning, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Matt Muir, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bex Goreham, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Vsevolod Rudyi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bex Goreham, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Northern white crust, northern white crust

Other scientific names: Leptoclinum albidum, Leptoclinum luteolum, Leptoclinum polare, Lissoclinum albidum, Lissoclinum luteolum, Tetradidemnum albidum

Similar species

Green Barrel Sea Squirt
Didemnum molle
Compound sea squirt
Didemnum vexillum
Didemnum jucundum
Moseley's Ascidian
Didemnum moseleyi
Colonial tunicate
Didemnum perlucidum
Ascidian
Didemnum psammatodes

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
850 open-data records from 1873 to 2025.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.